Shirley's Articles / Email Essentials

It’s Time To Question The Norms In Your Email Writing

Since my recent articles, the conversations about writing style are still continuing, and that’s a good thing. It means people are really thinking about the way you are writing emails and other business documents.

Some people have asked me whether social media has had an impact on our business writing. This is a great question, and the answer is yes.

Social media has reshaped the way we communicate

Younger people in the workplace today were born with social media. They know how to communicate concisely, using fewer words, images, stories. But what happens when they go out into the corporate world?

Very often, they get caught in the prison of the old corporate ways by writing long-winded, template-style jargon that bears little resemblance to a conversation between two real live human beings.

This is probably because they are influenced by what they see other people doing. Perhaps they see colleagues and bosses writing “Please find attached”, “Please be informed”, “Kindly be advised” and “above-mentioned/below-mentioned”, etc, so they just follow suit.

Times change. We must change too.

Within a few decades we’ve gone from horse and carriage to driverless cars. We’ve gone from manual typewriters to super-powered computers. Our whole world has changed. It’s time for our business writing to change too.

Today, readers want to read messages that are simple, clear and understandable. Readers need to know exactly what to do and how to reply. Writers must use plain language that’s easy to write, easy to read, and easy to understand. This involves using short, clear sentences and everyday words, in active voice, with no redundancies. It means writing like a human, not a template!